Serb far-right leader underwent surgery, his party says

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Serbian far-right party says its leader Vojislav Seselj has undergone surgery, defying orders to return to a U.N. war crimes tribunal that released him temporarily for health reasons.

The Serbian Radical Party says that Seselj — who is accused of recruiting paramilitary forces during the 1990s wars in Croatia and Bosnia — had an operation on Thursday. The party gave no other details, pending information from Seselj's doctors.

Seselj's Serbian doctors have said that he has colon cancer that has spread to his liver.

The U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands, temporarily released Seselj in November on condition that he would return to the tribunal if summoned.

In March, appeals judges ruled that he must return, but he has refused to do so.